July 8, 1875] 



NATURE 



■93 



— will be represented by samples grown in India. The 

 economic plants introduced into India must necessarily 

 form an important feature in its trade museum. Amongst 

 trees Eucalypti, the baobab, cork oak, mahogany, have 

 not as yet produced marketable results ; but tea, cinchona, 

 senna, nutmegs, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, barley, tapioca, 

 the Maranta arrowroot, Orleans and Egyptian cotton, 

 with their hybrids, Carolina rice, &c., are a few of the 

 instances in which the SHCcessfully introduced plants 

 have added, or promise to add, considerably to the 

 exports of India. In the development of the natural 

 resources of so vast a region undoubtedly much remains 

 to be accomplished. Passing through this room, a great 

 number of such unknown, undeveloped, or unappreciated 

 objects will not fail to impress themselves upon the atten- 

 tive observer. Surely with such vast forests, and a system 

 of conservation so steadily pursued, more ornamental 

 and furniture woods are destined to be exported than yet 

 find their way to the coast ; and there are at least sound 

 timbers _^little inferior to teak, such as Hopca odorata is 

 said to be, which require only to be more widely known 

 to be more generally appreciated. In resinous products 

 the European markets are as yet but little indebted to 

 the forests of India, but the copals here shown from 

 Hopca odoraia and Hopca 7nicrantha give considerable 

 promise. The wood oils produced by several species of 

 Dipterocarptcs, and the Burmese lacquer derived from 

 Melatwrrhcca tisitatissinia, might be obtained in large 

 quantities, and yet hitherto no practical application for 

 them in this country has been discovered. The latter is 

 employed to a very great extent in Burmah for lacquering 

 furniture and small wares, but it is unsuited for the Eng- 

 lish process. 



Amongst the objects in this room of interest to the 

 botanist rather than to the general pubhc may be cited 

 the Tabashir, a sihceous secretion from the joints of the 

 bamboo ; the curious horn-shaped galls called Kakra- 

 singhec, produced on a species of RJms ; manna ob- 

 tained from Tamarix indica in the North-west Provinces, 

 and a kind of manna named Shirkhist from the Punjab, 

 attributed to the Frnximts Jloribuiida ; the resin some- 

 what resembling Elemi, derived from Boswellia Frercmia, 

 which the late Daniel Hanbury considered one of the 

 ancient kinds of Elemi, but which is disputed on good 

 grounds by Dr. Birdwood ; narcotic Indian hemp in 

 different forms, including the Churrus or hemp resin, and 

 various confections into which it enters ; the clearing 

 nuts which are employed by natives in clearing water, 

 and are the seeds of a species of Strychnos. To which 

 may be added the paper-like bark of Betttla bhojpatra, 

 used in Northern India as a wrapper for cigars ; the bark 

 of one of the species of Daphne, from which the re- 

 nowned Nepal paper is made, and the singular natural 

 sacks made of the bark of Ajttiaris saccidora. 



The models of native implements associated with the 

 respective " products," drawings and photographs of the 

 mode of using them, the copious illustrations of plants 

 from whence useful substances are derived, and especially 

 the series of photographs of forest trees, are calculated 

 to increase the public interest in this collection, and add 

 to its usefulness, although these features are not yet deve- 

 loped to the extent or in the systematic manner which 

 they are intended to assume. 



Rooms Nos. 4 and 5 contain the zoological collections, 

 under the superintendence of the assistant curator, Mr. F. 

 Moore. In it are comprised the various collections of 

 Mammals, Birds, Insects, &c., contributed by officers of 

 the old East India Company, whose names have been 

 distinguished by their labours in this branch of natural 

 history, of whom may be mentioned Buchanan, Cautley, 

 Finlayson, Hodgson, Horsfield, M'Clelland, Raffles, Rox- 

 burgh, Russell, Wallich, &c. 



Commencing with the Mammals, in Room No. 5, the 

 various tribes have been so arranged in the several cases 



that the visitor at a glance may see the principal species 

 in each group. From want of space, however, many of 

 the larger species are at present precluded from being 

 exhibited, and it is proposed to substitute photographs 

 and other illustrations of them. 



Following in order come the Birds, which have also 

 been arranged in a similar manner, each group or tribe 

 being represented by prominent and characteristic species. 



In this room are also deposited the cabinets of Insects, 

 several groups of which are provisionally exhibited in the 

 window recesses, as well as an unique collection of Indian 

 forest insect pests. 



The tribes of Reptiles and Fish are shown in Room No, 

 4, and, though at present but few species are represented, 

 this section will shortly be enriched by the extensive and 

 valuable collections formed by the Inspector- General of 

 Indian Fisheries. 



Supplemental to these groups, which are arranged in a 

 scientific series, these rooms contain an important collec- 

 tion of economic animal products, including an unique 

 series of the silk-producing insects, lac, honey-yielders, and 

 gall-making insects of India, and their several valuable 

 products, as well as groups of pearl-oysters, chanks, wools, 

 plumes, horns, ivory, &c. 



For a series of fossils and plaster casts from the 

 Cautley and Falconer collections, as well as the collec- 

 tions of shells and Crustacea, no cases have as yet been 

 erected for their reception. 



7" HE BIRDS OF GREECE* 



'T^ HE third part of Mommsen's Griechische Jahres- 

 -*- zeiten is devoted to an article upon the birds of the 

 classical land, to our better knowledge of which Herr 

 Mommsen's work is intended to contribute— an article 

 which will be quite as interesting to naturalists as to the 

 scholars for whom the periodical in question is primarily 

 designed. The memoir is based upon the notes and 

 observations made during his long residence in Greece 

 and the adjoining parts of the Levant by Dr. Kriiper, a 

 naturalist well known to all students of European orni- 

 thology for his accurate and painstaking investigations of 

 the birds of those countries, and especially for his dis- 

 coveries of the breeding haunts of some of the rarer 

 species. Dr. Kriiper's notes have been further augmented 

 in value by the co-operation of Dr. Hartlaub, of Bremen, 

 one of the first of living ornithologists, who has con- 

 tributed the references to the previous authorities upon 

 each species, and a list of the existing memoirs relating 

 to the same subject, besides adding many extracts from 

 former writers to Dr. Kriiper's observations. 



The total numbe-r of species of birds noticed by Dr. 

 Kriiper in the present memoir is 358, on each of which 

 notes of a more or less extended character are given. 

 The arrangement adopted for the sake of convenience is 

 that of Lindermayer's " Vogel Griechenlandes," published 

 at Passau in i860, and hitherto generally recognised as 

 the best authority upon Grecian ornithology. Dr. Kriiper's 

 memoir must now, however, be referred to as more com- 

 plete, and contains many recent additions to Linder- 

 mayer's list. We observe, however, that the work 

 extends into limits which cannot (at any rate at present) 

 be called Greece in its modern sense, as Dr. Kriiper's 

 recent discoveries in the neighbourhood of Smyrna of 

 such birds as Pious syriaciis, Siita krueperi, and Cos- 

 syp/ia qtitturalis are mtroduced into it. It is, how- 

 ever, a matter of great convenience to ornithologists to 

 have Dr. Kriiper's notes upon the Birds of Greece and 

 the Levant, many of which have been scattered through 

 the pages of half a dozen periodicals, reduced into order 

 under such excellent superintendence. Dr. Hartlaub's 



* Griechische "Jahreszeiten ; unter Mitwerkurg Sachkiindiger, htraus- 

 gegeben von August Mommsen. Heft iii. Schleswig, 1875. 



